Record numbers of Cuban nationals have been deported from the United States since President Trump returned to office last year, but most have not been repatriated to Cuba. Instead, they have been sent to Mexico, where many arrive with little documentation or money — and in some cases wind up living on the street, Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday.
The group found that Cuban deportees, many of them older men who had lived in Florida or other U.S. states for decades, have struggled to find shelter, receive medical care and generally get by in Mexico. Unable to return to Cuba, or to legally work or relocate within Mexico for many months, some of the men are living in an “indefinite legal limbo,” the report said.
The report was based on interviews with 53 recent deportees, 41 of them Cuban, conducted between February and March. The oldest man was 83. Several had lived in the United States since they were children or teenagers. Others were once legal permanent residents, but lost their green cards after criminal convictions. Cuba usually will not accept deportees with criminal convictions.
Cubans had long benefited from legal privileges unavailable to immigrants from other countries, but the Trump administration has not hesitated to deport them, all but ending legal immigration from the island.
The New York Times interviewed several of the men before the report’s release. One 59-year-old, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation against his relatives in the United States, described being sent on a 38-hour bus journey from the southern border to Villahermosa, in southern Mexico. There, he said, the Mexican authorities simply told him and other deportees to get off the bus.
Some men eventually made their way to a temporary shelter. But months later, Human Rights Watch found others living across the street from a hospital. In Tapachula, another city in southern Mexico with many Cuban deportees, some have been living in a public park, the report said.
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